ep025: How Molly Rebuilt Her Practice and Has More Energy and More Income

Joanna Sapir

Welcome to the Business Revolution podcast, where practitioners and coaches that provide services in health, wellness and education come to learn the business side of things like marketing, pricing, hiring, finances, all the things you need to streamline and organize your business, create steady and predictable income, improve your clients even more deeply, and reach your full potential as a business owner. If you’re a skilled, experienced practitioner of your craft that has or wants to have a profitable and sustainable business doing the work you love, you’re in the right place. And I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s get into this episode. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Business Revolution for Practitioners podcast. I’m super excited to have a client here, an acupuncturist Mollye, to share her beautiful journey she’s been on and the incredible successes she’s been having. And I especially thank you for being here, Molly.

Molly McNeel

Yeah, I’m excited. This is great.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah, I especially. Your story is so fantastic because I’m going to set the context here and say you started working with me about a year ago and you were in a different city and a different state.

Molly McNeel

Yes.

Joanna Sapir

And in the course of the program, you and your husband decided to move to a different state and a different city, and you launched a new business. I mean, it’s the same name, but in a brand new place where you didn’t know people and didn’t have clients. And it’s only been maybe two months at the most or something.

Molly McNeel

Yeah. Yeah, close to it.

Joanna Sapir

And you’re just like crushing it. So I can’t wait for you to share these details.

Molly McNeel

Awesome.

Joanna Sapir

Okay, so first question I have for you is, why did you start working with me? Why did you join the program? What were the issues in your business then that you wanted to address?

Molly McNeel

Okay, so looking back about a year ago, it was this time a year ago that I was contemplating joining. And it was inconsistency. That was a word that kept on coming up for me. I felt as both a practitioner and a business owner, I was being inconsistent and I was ready. I felt confident enough in my skill set. As the practitioner, I know what I’m doing. I feel really good there. But now as the business owner, I wanted to kind of like streamline things to be more consistent with what I make per month and growth I wanted to grow. At the time, I had plans not to move out of state to a new city, but to hire sooner than later. So, yeah, a year ago it was like, let’s get things kind of tighter, streamlined as a business owner, and be consistent for a few months before I can say, yes, I’m ready to hire or not.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah. Any particular real pains in the asses? So I’m hearing that we’re kind of like, oh, my goodness, can’t this be different? Or can’t this be better?

Molly McNeel

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So I think it was the, like, being unpredictable with, I knew I had my regular patients, for instance, I knew that I was always having a good consistency across the board with so many patients that I could say, but I couldn’t say. It was to a point in my career that I could say that it was time to hire on, but I didn’t know how to, like, measure that yet. So the pain point was like, one, how do I measure something like this to hire someone on? And two, the pain point was like, I know I’m not consistent enough with getting new patients in the door, and I was treating very much like session by session rather than like a full, hey, I’m the practitioner. I know x, y, and Z is going to help. Let’s individualize your treatment program for you, which is now where I’m at. So the pain point was definitely like, kind of like, ooh, every week, maybe I have ten this week, maybe I have 25 patients this week. And it wasn’t really that big of a difference. Right?

Joanna Sapir

Yeah. And I just want to point out that everyone that comes to me when they first come to me when they’re like, you and they’re good at what they do, will say stuff like, no, I have regular clients who stay on for long term, and I, and I’m always like, but it’s different. When you create programs, it’s different. So I wanna come back to that and highlight that. Yeah. So let me ask you this. In the program, in the curriculum, what have been for you, like, the most.

Molly McNeel

Important pieces so early on in the program? When we started out, it was really fun to look at, like, the business just as a business, not as the practitioner, but looking at, like, my mission statement, what am I really representing? What are, like, looking at the terms, I’m using the keywords and buzzwords, all of that. That was a lot of fun. And now that I’ve gone through it, I can see the importance of really having that honed in. And the more and more I’m doing this, I’m getting a little more specific, which is nice to kind of have that more specific and more, then I’m able to tailor what I’m saying to people in terms of how I’m reaching out to them in emails and conversations. So, yeah, that was really fun to explore at the beginning because I didn’t do that other than maybe a week or two in grad school. But we don’t really get taught that. Oh, yeah, I have a mission statement, have a vision, but what is that? And then the other thing that really stood out for me was when, when I got to finally look at what kind of program do I want to build for these patients that I know can still be tailored very individually, but also just have this almost like a building block for every single patient. I can repeat it over and over and know I’m getting individual care for them. So that was exciting to build. It was overwhelming at first, I’m not going to lie to, but it was as I, like, chipped away week after week. It was exciting. It was nice to see it coming together. Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

Cool. And so tell us what’s going on. What has the process of this change been like for you? You had the interesting case of realizing you were moving.

Molly McNeel

Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

And so it was like, oh, I’m not implementing this right here, right now because we’re now packing all our stuff up. But once you got to the new spot, I mean, you’re fully doing it. Tell us what’s going on in your business and how it’s been.

Molly McNeel

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we decided to move maybe. Maybe halfway through the program, I would say. I’m trying to think timeline. So, yeah, halfway through, but. And I knew I didn’t want to totally implement, although I was kind of ready to implement the program with my current practice in Florida. That’s when I decided just not to. I was just going to stay status quo, keep going. But I knew when I moved, I was going to immediately integrate what I had learned, what I had built. So that felt really, like, empowering to know that I was stepping right into what I’ve already built. And it was. I mean, I’m doing it right now. It’s been a month and a half. Two months.

Joanna Sapir

A month and a half.

Molly McNeel

Yeah. It really.

Joanna Sapir

But you already had your program, you had your sales process, you had your invitation, all of this. You were ready to go.

Molly McNeel

Yep.

Joanna Sapir

Tell people, like, this is, this is not having to do with the program. Like, tell people what you did as somebody, you know, moving to a brand new city.

Molly McNeel

So with my outreach, for instance, like having my framework built in, I knew exactly how to outreach to the people, the populations, the interest groups that I wanted to talk to. I wanted to get in front of their people because I knew they were going to be my people. So that was very specific. So, for instance, I want to work with people that are struggling to feel good in their body, like tightness. Can’t quite figure it out. So I knew to go to people who are working out or, you know, that target audience, but within that, my conversation, that was never really too much of a weak point for me. It was follow through. When we would have conversations, patients one on one, it’s now saying, oh, I know exactly what I’m going to do for you. Within that first conversation, that deep dive consultation, I know this is perfect for you, or you know what? I am not your provider. Let me refer you to so and so who I hear has done this. So it’s very specific now. And I feel. I feel really good saying no. Yeah, I know I can say no and feel good in that because they are going to someone else that can do what they need, but I’m not their one. Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

Were you scared of that at first? I mean, you’ve heard others in the program express those fears. Did you have that, too? Like, people feel like, I don’t want to turn anybody away. Why would I turn anybody away? Like, there’s fears around money, but there’s also fears around, like, I really can help everybody. And what’s your journey been like?

Molly McNeel

This is a great question because, yeah, the fear, as any provider, I think most of us go into these care taking roles because we know we can help people. And a lot of the time, I think every call I’ve had with, like, a potential patient, I’m like, oh, yeah, I kind of could help them, you know, wavering on that. But knowing exactly what I want to be doing for me from my business, for what I’m doing, it has helped me just feel confident with that. No. Instead of being fearful of that. No. Because then it allows more or another person to come and it really has, literally has. But then from the money standpoint, let me, let me talk on that if I can, because moving here, I knew no one. There’s very little. So my income base has completely plummeted. When I first moved because I didn’t have any patience, I didn’t know what I was going to treat. But staying within this program base, I’m able to confidently see what I can make within the first month and even with two or three, the first couple weeks of when I implemented it. So that was, again, security for me.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah. All right, so you’re, so to be clear, yes. You’re one to two months in, is that what we said, six weeks or something? Six to eight weeks maybe you’ve been in business in the new place.

Molly McNeel

Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

You just enrolled your, what, 7th? Yeah, number seven, your 7th person in your program. Are you going to share like what the price of that is and a little about what it looks like?

Molly McNeel

Absolutely. I would love to. So my, what I’m currently doing is. Let me. So it’s eight weeks and it’s at $2,400 and I have done a down payment. Basically people pay 20% down and then over a course of four weeks they pay the rest of them. So that’s how it’s working. And then within that, I originally wanted twelve week program. That’s what I like had envisioned, but the reason I cut it back was because there were summer people, there were people here only for really eight to ten weeks. So it’s like, okay, let me shift things, shift the price, shift what I’m doing. And it made sense for them based on what I was treating. So yeah, that’s basically the framework of the program.

Joanna Sapir

Okay. And does that mean you’re going back to the twelve weeks or you’re like kind of settled into what it’s.

Molly McNeel

So I can’t really say yet. Right now it feels pretty comfortable at eight weeks. But I really think I have the flexibility to be patient dependent. But I like this eight weeks as like the base and seeing, and then reassessing around visit five, six and seeing. Okay, I already can project. We’re going to need x, Y and Z or. No, the eight weeks feels good. They feel good, that kind of thing.

Joanna Sapir

Yep. And so for anybody listening, you know, we call that your back end program. What is that, XYZ on the back?

Molly McNeel

Correct.

Joanna Sapir

And those tend to be like maintenance programs essentially. But I’m sure that you occasionally will get cases of somebody who needs continued intensive treatment. You talk to them about that. Cool. So just want to point out, so you just enrolled your 7th person in just that many weeks and so you’re talking about that income. So some people pay in full and some people pay on like a payment plan. Right. So you actually have projected income, you know, eight weeks into the future, which kind of gives you way more predictability, and then you have, your pricing was based on your ideal schedule.

Molly McNeel

Correct.

Joanna Sapir

So once you are quote unquote full, first of all, full probably looks a lot different than it used to look when you said that before. Sometimes you had 25 patient sessions in a week. I think it’s a lot less than that now. So even when you’re full, you are actually, I mean, when you are full, which is not overworked. You are making exactly the income that you laid out when we went through the profitable pricing, uh, calculator, which is just so awesome. I’m so excited for you.

Molly McNeel

I am so much lighter. Like, I can feel it because of. I know I have money coming in. I know I can put so much more of my mental energy into what I need to do per patient and their treatment plan. It just feels, like, natural. It feels good. Yeah. Sorry I cut you off there, but no, I love it.

Joanna Sapir

I love it. One of the things you said to me the other day was that you have more energy after sessions than you ever did.

Molly McNeel

Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

What do you explain that? What do you attribute that to?

Molly McNeel

Okay, yeah, so let’s talk about that. I am a big component of this is what I tell people every day. Like, you need your energy. You need to fill up your cup first before you can fill up someone else’s, basically. And what I was finding, and I just said this to my husband, so commuting into work, where I’m coming, is the same length of time that I used to drive down in Florida. And I am not exhausted, I am not worn out. My mental. The mental part of all of it, I feel more alert, not just going to work, you know, I always felt pretty good going to work, but afterwards, of just seeing my three patients in a day, or sometimes one, it varies when I have them scheduled, but I feel refreshed and knowing that, oh, I’m looking forward to doing this again tomorrow and writing up the treatment plan and getting the herbal component in there, and then the diet, nutrition, and so it’s more exhilarating than like, okay, I have to do all this. Okay, like, I can’t not do this. I have, you know. Yeah. So the energy piece there is significant, and I want to keep going. I want this to be my business model moving forward. I’m not going back.

Joanna Sapir

Oh, yeah, right. I sure hope so. It’s so awesome to see. I also just want to note that I know that people listening are going to be like, but what about the marketing? And so you just kind of briefly mentioned your framework, and maybe we could just talk so that people can hear. To be in a brand new town, you had to do some kind of, you know, outreach is what you said, and you and I worked quite a bit on this. And so, like, what were. What have just been a few of the things you have, let’s say, the. The most effective things you have done, because, like, you’re getting these people. These people are scheduling consultations and to break it down a little bit, you did say earlier, you’re like, I know what to say now. You have a clear sales process now.

Molly McNeel

Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

What are you, you know what you’re inviting them to, which is you’re inviting them to a free consultation to talk about their health needs. Right. But that’s even after you have done some kind of education bit. So share, just like, what have been the most effective things right now in terms of, like, you’re getting clients in this brand new place.

Molly McNeel

So twofold with the most effective piece is I working in a co working space. So my office is within a co working space that has a bunch of people who do different things and work for different companies and they have their own offices or a floating desk.

Joanna Sapir

I have to interject and say, it’s so smart that you did that. I mean, it is so smart. And I don’t recall and we don’t need to share, like, how much you’re paying for rent for it, but it’s lower than if you had your own office. Right. Significantly. And so how smart is that you made? And, you know, I’m seeing you on video and you can see it’s this beautiful treatment room. You made this office inside a co working space, so you’re surrounded by people who likely could use your services. You know, it’s just so great. So anyway, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. It’s just.

Molly McNeel

No, that was great.

Joanna Sapir

Move. Okay.

Molly McNeel

Yeah. And honestly, I came into this just thinking that I was going to work at a desk, like just building my program, reaching out to people, taking calls, but then knowing that it was zoned for what I do, and they offered bigger spaces. I was like, yes, this is definitely it. Because they already know the area, like the business. So that was the other thing that I tapped into immediately because I already had everything prepared to share with this group of people at their entrepreneur luncheon that they hold every month. So I asked if I could be their guest the next month, and they happened to need a guest. So I was on their docket and was able to share my. Basically my framework, who I am, who I am as a provider. Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

So I just want to take this apart, unpack this a little bit in case people kind of missed it. So actually, one of the things you learn in the program is how to lead free workshops where you teach your framework.

Molly McNeel

Yes.

Joanna Sapir

And so, interestingly, I like to say that it’s not a presentation of who you are. Right. It’s teaching your framework, but it very organically. Is you expressing who you are, but it’s not you saying, look at me and I’m great. Right. The framework is all about your clients and what they need to achieve their health goals.

Molly McNeel

Correct.

Joanna Sapir

And so what you did was you tapped into, and this is, this is a strategy I teach. I did it a whole bunch in this business. When I first started, it was reaching out to co working spaces because they already have their own marketing mechanisms behind them, they have their own email lists and they love to bring things to their members for free. So you were there already. You already were an insider and said, I’d love to do one of these lunch and learns, or whatever they call theirs, and did that. And you taught your framework using our format that we teach. So we have a really specific format for that where you’re teaching it and there’s a feedback form at the end and you collect, you capture leads and prospects.

Molly McNeel

Yes, yes. And that was critical. That was like, if I didn’t have that, I would not have the email list I have now because now it’s grown even more because they’ve shared my new couple emails I’ve sent out and really I have not sent that many out because I’m still new building all of it. But it’s amazing to just see the tick in more emails because of it. And the feedback form was so helpful to see where within the teaching, my framework they found it beneficial and it was stuff that I didn’t think would be beneficial. And so, yeah, it was eye opening. I loved the feedback form. That is critical.

Joanna Sapir

Love it, love it. And so you haven’t done the teach the framework workshop again yet, have you? Anywhere else?

Molly McNeel

No, no, I have one.

Joanna Sapir

You’re looking at it.

Molly McNeel

Yep. I have one scheduled for October.

Joanna Sapir

That’s right. That’s right. So this is something you can do over and over in different spots, which is just awesome. Yeah. And anything else that’s been particularly effective, I think you mentioned last week when we talked just simple Google Business profile. Yeah.

Molly McNeel

My gosh, yes. So I had a very great Google when I was down in Florida, Google location and whatnot, some reviews, all of that. And I was able to transfer that to this location fairly easily and quickly, just reaching out to Google and within that, that’s when people Google acupuncture here in Portland, my name pops up immediately and because I’m kind of posting, it’s staying up to date. So it’s not a priority of mine right now, but I have seen the significance and that’s drawn people to just at least book a discovery call because they’re interested.

Joanna Sapir

And I just also want to point out to everybody listening, like, one of the reasons this works, like, you listening, you might have a Google business profile, and maybe it’s doing nothing for you, but one of the reasons it works for you, Molly, first of all, you just said you do update it. You’ve got reviews. You want that in place. But you have a really clear sales system, right. It’s a really clear call to action. And your first invitation is to a 15 minutes phone consultation. Easy yes. It’s an easy yes. And then from there, you have a really clear process to lead them step by step to becoming clients. So it’s so awesome. It’s so beautiful. I love it. What are you most proud of so far in what you’ve done?

Molly McNeel

Oh, man. I am so proud that I have really stepped into the business side of things. So I love being an acupuncturist. I love my job as a practitioner. I did not love being a business owner, even though I always wanted to. I didn’t love it. I did not enjoy it. Now, though, I would say I have stepped into areas that I avoided, and I don’t dread it now. Like, looking at my books, understanding terminology, and, like, how to run a business. Yes, there’s a lot more to learn, but I just feel like, okay, I’m not afraid of it anymore. I’m more curious to keep growing and seeing how it builds and, like, tracking things. Spreadsheets were not my friend, and I’m seeing how important they are, but how fun it can be to see, like, oh, my gosh, all of July. Look at what happened now. Okay, let’s see what happens in August. This is exciting.

Joanna Sapir

Yes. Yeah.

Molly McNeel

So being a business owner is now fun. I didn’t think I could say that before.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. And what would you say, molly, have been your biggest learnings? Like, what have you learned about yourself? What have you learned about business? What have you learned about personal growth? That could be lessons for other people to hear.

Molly McNeel

Yeah. So one of my personal growth endeavors, it was, like, hard to look at the leadership aspect of if I wanted to hire people, which I did a year ago, and I still do now, but it was very different. I was like, I wanted to hire because I didn’t want to do things, I wanted to avoid things and just hire those people to do the things I didn’t want to do. So the personal growth has been one knowing that I can take on things that I was afraid to take on. But two, now I see I don’t have to. Now I have like, a clearer understanding of, it’s not fear, it’s actually, I just don’t enjoy it. And it’s okay to then delegate or outsource once you really know the why behind not wanting to do it. Yeah. Instead of fear leading it, it’s an understanding and it’s like, yeah, I still really don’t enjoy this and that’s okay. So I’m going to outsource it, like social media or whatever it is.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah. It’s an empowered decision made from leadership, not from abdication of responsibility.

Molly McNeel

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The word leadership. When before I decided to work with you, Joanna, it was a couple podcasts that maybe were titled that or you said leadership a bunch of times and that’s what spoke to me. Leadership within your own business. And I’m like, oh, my gosh, if I am going to hire people, I need to be a leader, and I’m not a leader in my business right now, but now I can say I am far better, like, to lead as a business owner. It feels really good.

Joanna Sapir

I love it so much. Molly, it sounds like any next strategy session we have should be on your future scaling plans and getting towards that.

Molly McNeel

That would be great.

Joanna Sapir

Is there anything else you would like to share with folks? I always, you know, it’s one of those things, just like people, your own patients, we all have this, which is the other side is hard to imagine when you haven’t even started yet, you know, and so curious whether you have. It looked like you had an aha there.

Molly McNeel

I do. I do. And the AHA was again a year ago, but honestly longer than that. Like two or three years ago, working by myself as a solo practitioner, I knew I wanted to do business differently than just kind of like what you say, the freelance model. I didn’t know how to do that, but I knew it was going to happen. It was a matter of time and the moment I felt so confident to step into my authenticity as a practitioner, knowing the skillset, and I’ve been doing it now for seven years, I feel really confident there lots more to learn, but confident. I was ready to step in and knew I was going to do business different for me, for my family, for my patients, for the whole kind of look of what acupuncture can be for people. I wanted to kind of start that ripple effect.

Joanna Sapir

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Molly McNeel

To do it different.

Joanna Sapir

Anything else you want to share about where, where you’re at, where you’ve been what this journey has been like. And then my final question, you could wrap it all up in one, is, you know, what are you looking forward to ahead of you?

Molly McNeel

What am I looking forward to? More consistency. So continuing to kind of just get comfortable with doing the discovery calls and the deep dive consultations and it’s very natural. It feels good. So consistency. But I’m already excited to kind of like you were just saying, like our next chat, just kind of starting to explore. Okay. What can happen a year from now and what are the steps to get to growth to some degree? Yeah. And what do I want in growth now?

Joanna Sapir

Yeah.

Molly McNeel

Awesome.

Joanna Sapir

I love it.

Molly McNeel

Yeah, I know. Me too.

Joanna Sapir

Thank you for coming on and sharing your story, Molly. It’s so, I just think it’s so good for people to hear all the pieces. I mean, just how you’ve implemented all the pieces, but what it’s like. And then just this added factor of you went and started a new business in a new place and are totally doing it.

Molly McNeel

Yes.

Joanna Sapir

So I want to say to everybody listening, you can too. Especially if you’re not moving. You can do that.

Molly McNeel

Oh gosh. Yeah.

Joanna Sapir

Okay. Thank you so much, Molly, for being here. It’s been so fun working with you too. So I’m glad you got it. I’m glad you’re here sharing it with, with the more public audience.

Molly McNeel

Yeah, me too. Thank you so much. I’m so glad I did this.

Joanna Sapir

If you want higher income in your practice without overworking or burning out, I invite you to check out the profitable practitioner academy. This is my twelve month coaching and training program for innovative wellness practitioners. If you’re busy in your business yet still not making enough income for savings or future investments, if the back end of your business feels disorganized and messy and you want cleaned up, organized systems to run it, or if you’re stuck in the day to day of working with clients and don’t have the time or energy or structures for really leading your business to the level you know you can be at, the profitable practitioner academy is for you. Inside the academy, you’ll learn how to bank $5,000 days in the instead of $500 days, you’ll work exclusively with committed clients you love and help them get better results by enrolling them in programs or treatment plans. You’ll use the profitable pricing calculator to charge the right prices. You’ll eliminate your resistance to selling with the predictable sales system. You’ll no longer have cancellations and no shows, and your business will be streamlined and organized so that it’s finally running smoothly and sustainably. With less time and effort, you’ll finally have a business that actually provides for you and make that big vision you have for your business and life a reality. Go to joannasapir.com/ppa for more info, or click on the link in show notes.